Chapter 343
With a sigh at my own ridiculousness, I continued to the shower. I saw my sister talking to Tara outside and realized I had even more time than I thought since Tara loved to chat. I thought I should let her know I would have a little freedom before homework. Maybe she would want to meet me at Brandon’s. I didn’t want to interrupt her conversation with Cadence, though, so I decided to do it later and pushed into the locker room, relieved to see that Addy and the rest of the girls were already gone.
After a quick shower, I let Tara know I was going to Brandon’s. She was at the pizza place with Dax and Lucy waiting on their order and decided to make it to-go and said she’d meet us over there. I wasn’t hungry, but I knew Brandon would be—he always is—so she said she’d bring an extra pie.
“Hey, I’m on my way to your place.” It was a nice spring day and it was hard to rush, even though I wanted to take advantage of every second I had before the warden announced free time was over.
“I know. Your sister stopped by and told me she was going to spring you for a little while.”
I could hear the excitement in his voice. Before my parents moved here, we’d spent almost every afternoon together. He’d even make me lunch. Now, my Mom wouldn’t let him in the apartment unless my homework was completely finished. Unless it was algebra. He was allowed to tutor me in the living room. Sometimes, Elliott would tell my mom he was home, and she would let me go up to their place to work on it then. Half the time, Elliott wasn’t even there. I appreciated his willingness to fudge a little on my behalf since his parenting style is totally different than Liz Findley’s. If she’s the warden, he’s like the other inmate, the one that will often get you into trouble....
Brandon opened the door before I knocked, and I practically fell into his arms, happy to have my gym bag with me and not my laptop for homework. “How was training?” he asked as we headed toward the couch.
“Good.” I took my usual seat, debating whether or not to mention Alex. I figured Tara would if I didn’t. “Alex was there to help out. He always has something insightful to say.”
Brandon raised an eyebrow. If I hadn’t been aware that my infatuation with Mr. Hamilton was evident to everyone else before, this was a day of revelation.
“You aren’t seriously concerned about him, are you?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as chiding as possible. “He’s old. I just think it’s really cool that he’s lived through so much.”
“Did I say anything?” Brandon asked, though his tone conveyed my suspicions that he had wanted to say something. “Tara is the one who likes to tease you about him, not me.”
“I know.” I ran my hands through my hair, thinking a wise woman would let it go. I did not. “It’s just—Cadence said something to me about him today, too. So stupid. I do not have a crush on Alexander Hamilton.”
“Good,” Brandon said, scooting a little toward me. “Because I do have a crush on you.”
I smiled. When he’s sweet like that, it makes my insides feel all melty, like vanilla ice cream on top of an ooey gooey brownie. How could I ever even consider choosing anyone else over him? I couldn’t.
Voices in the hall stopped me from responding, and Brandon stood up abruptly. “Do I smell pizza?”
I had to laugh. His stomach is even bigger than his heart. “Yeah, I asked Tara to bring some over.”
“Awesome!” He flew to the door and had it open within a half second.
“Well, hello there,” Tara said, a bit startled. “I guess you heard us coming?”
“I smelled you coming,” Brandon replied, taking the pizza boxes from Dax and bringing them to the coffee table.
“I’ll go grab some plates.” I stopped to say hello to Lucy, whom I hadn’t seen all day and then stepped into the kitchen to grab a stack of Styrofoam plates off of the counter. I kept trying to tell Elliott he was gonna be on this planet a long time so he might wanna stop buying something so terrible for the environment, but apparently, he didn’t listen to me. I also took some napkins and a six pack of Dr. Pepper I knew Elliott kept on hand just for me.
I walked back into a conversation about the movie Birdbox which was all the rage recently on Netflix. I hadn’t had a chance to watch it. Also, my mom said I shouldn’t watch those scary movies that will just put images in my head. I wanted to print out a picture of Bonnie attacking Tara and put that in my mom’s head, but there was no use arguing. If I wanted to watch it, there was not much she could do about it. I could watch it through Brandon’s eyes in the middle of the night if I wanted to. I didn’t want to.
And the more Dax and Tara talked about it, the more I thought maybe I never wanted to. Interesting concept, not my thing. I tuned out. My mind wandered, first to what Brandon had just said about Alex and then to Holland. I was sure my sister was coming to ask me about her. At least, I hoped she was. I was ready to get on with things.
I realized after almost an entire pizza was gone I was missing out and grabbed a slice. They were still talking about Birdbox when my sister walked in. No one even stopped talking to acknowledge her, they were so wrapped up in discussing who would be best at walking around outside with a blindfold. Cadence stood in the doorway, her head shifting back and forth with each speaker until Dax paused to take a breath. That’s when they seemed to notice her—and of course, she wanted to talk to me.
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